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Friday, August 30, 2013

Here we go with the next batch of three for Manhattan's current LE, so let's get right into it!

Dusky Pink

Two coats with top coat. I'm gonna try this layered over black some time. It's kinda cool with the black transparent base, but at the same time I feel it looks weird. Definitely quite special, though.

Limmering Lime

Two coats with top coat. The name reminds me of "limerick". What is a "limmering lime" anyway? Okay, whatever. This minty green with gold shimmer is quite nice, but I'm not too crazy for it.

Ma Marais

Two coats with top coat. A very nice dark green with shimmer. Similar to misslyn "crocodile", but more on the yellowish-green side. More like the swamp in the name, I guess. I like it. Oh, by the way: On the bottle, the name says "Ma MaraIs". It's a capital "i", not an "l". Just fyi, since I saw a few people confused about this. The display you will find these colors in says it correctly.

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Guess what time it is? No, not peanut butter jelly time, you silly butterflies! Of course it's time for our weekly series, so here we go!

Two coats with top coat. What can I say? It's pink. That's pretty much it. It looks a little coral-y in the picture, but it's not in reality; it's just a hot pink. Not neon, though, it's too dark for that. At first I wanted to go for essie's bottle service, but I figured that would be "duplicated" like mad, so I went with something else. I'm excited to see if there's still gonna be a twin.

Monday, August 26, 2013

I was lucky to find the display for this LE completely full, I guess it had just been put up. So of course I snagged the glitter topper... two bottles of it, actually. Ahem. Let's see it, shall we?

As usual with glitter toppers you have to push some pieces around a little, but this is basically one coat over two coats of essie's "cocktail bling", with top coat. Since it is entitled "graffiti topper" I thought it would be fitting to swatch it over gray. From the press release I had expected something different, but I guess it's my fault for thinking the pictures were accurate in any way. It's definitely something different, though, since this combination of glitter is quite unusual to me. I don't really like this combo very much, but maybe I'll try some others. Oh, and don't even get me started on that name...

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Manhattan came out with another collection that was developed in collaboration with the beauty community and I picked up quite a few of the colors, so I decided to split this up into three posts. Here we go with the first batch!

Birdy Bordeaux

Two coats with top coat. I really like this one a lot, even when the shimmer is more subtle than what you see in the second picture, which is in sunlight. This reminds me of wine, though it is a little too much on the purple side really. I don't get the name, I have to say. It makes me frown.

Dream on

Two coats with top coat. You can see a hint of the holographic pieces that are mixed into this, along with silver glitter (the holographic particles are a little bigger than the silver ones). It looks nice.

The Ballad of Blue

Three coats with top coat. Turquoise/blue flecks in a green jelly-like base, quite nice. It was a little patchy still after the second coat, so I added a third one to even everything out. If you apply it more carefully you might get it right with just two coats.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

I recently wore this and thought I'd share with you! This was part of the (First? I believe I heard they're gonna do another one.) Mariah Carey for OPI collaboration collection (or whatever it's called). I have a few other polishes from that collection, but let's see this one now, shall we?

Two coats, no top coat to conserve the sand finish. I like this. Unfortunately the holo effect that is really strong in the bottle gets a bit lost once you apply the polish, since of course you have less of the bigger glitter pieces on the nails than in the bottle, but it's still nice and pretty.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Two coats with top coat. This is definitely a dark gold (imagine it a little darker, more brown-ish than in the photo), I'm inclined to say it looks burned, though that probably doesn't make much sense. Case in point, I like it. It's really streaky and weird-looking on the first coat, but levels out nicely on the second, with a teensy bit of dabbing where I didn't manage to cover all of my nail with the brushstrokes. This is mainly because my nails like to shed their topmost layer, so I have grooves and bumps everywhere... sigh. Anyway, this color surprised me, I like it.

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

So essie VIP is having a nail art sort of contest that I actually felt "inspired" to participate in. The theme is "Casino Royal". I think there's an "e" missing there, but whatever. I did take this as an allusion to the James Bond movie, so I got some inspiration from the intro of said movie.

I started out by painting two nails white and two nails black. Two coats each.

Final result. The crown is stamped on, the numbers were painted freehand with the little brush.

The motifs explained:
white on black number 13: from roulette
red on white number 7: from the intro, where there's a scene of two holes being shot into a seven of hearts card to form the legendary 007
white on black number 8: also from roulette, but mostly to be seen in combination with the number 13, as an allusion to blackjack
red crown on white: further allusion to card games

Sunday, August 18, 2013

So the essence products are about to transition from spring/summer to fall/winter and a new line of products are the longlasting lipsticks, one of which I'd like to show you today! I found it in a special edition sort of display with a few other select products that are about to hit the shelves.

naked lips (they're pretty dry, sorry about that...)

For me, this is a "my lips but better"-color (first picture more color-accurate than second). I know how overused that is, but it's really fitting if you ask me. As such, it's a subtle color that I might even wear out of the house for a change. I'm a shy person when it comes to make-up on my face, but I might venture out of my comfort zone with this. We'll see. I really like the more mature packaging - it's still plastic, but the matt black with the ring of color seems much less like a kid's toy than the usual packaging of essence's lipsticks. Well done, essence!

Monday, August 12, 2013

In theory, you've already seen this polish here, where I used it to make a sparkly tuxedo. But I used top coat there so let's have a look at the original matt version, shall we?

Two coats, no top coat (duh). I really like this, but I'd like it even better if it were more black; it looks kind of dark grey-ish, but is supposed to be black. More saturation would be awesome, but I also like it as it is, as I said.

Saturday, August 10, 2013

I'm really sorry I'm late, I just got caught up watching the Pirates of the Caribbean marathon... No, actually I just forgot that I didn't have a post scheduled for today. Also, if you know who says that first sentence in what context I'll love you forever. Anyway, on to the nail polish goodness!

Two coats, no top coat. I think this could use at least one more coat. White nail polish is generally more of a special thing, don't you think? Anyway, this one is quite nice in my opinion - just not the greates coverage at two coats. I'm gonna have to try it out with three or four, I guess.

Thursday, August 8, 2013

This is totally Elena's fault. Yep. But then again, we all know I can never resist purple, right?

Two coats with top coat. Oh hi there beautiful! As you can see, the holo particles can look silver in lower light/non-direct lighting, which I think is pretty cool, since you still have the glitter visible even when it's not showing its holographic qualities. On top of that, I love the name.

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Sorry I'm later than usual, I procrastinated with this week's color - which is brown, by the way - because I don't really like it, and then yesterday it was too dark to take photos because there was a storm in the evening. So anyway, let's see what I ended up putting on for this week!

Two coats with top coat. This has gold shimmer, but it's not very visible on the nail. The base is a reddish brown. Not really my thing, especially not on my short nails, I might like it better when my nails get longer again. I don't know, I just feel that most polishes look nicer on long nails. Doesn't have to be crazy long, but the current length of my nails is definitely not enough for me. It's all personal preference, though - of course :) Oh, and that name? Really weird.

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

The LE this polish was part of dates back to end of 2011, so it's been a while since you might have seen it in stores... I managed to get hold of four of the total of five polishes in the collection and wanted to share this one with you.

Two coats with top coat. Wow. Look at those gold flecks... amazing. They shift a little in color depending on the light - you can catch a glimpse of that in the third picture. I love it!

Sunday, August 4, 2013

So Catrice jumped on the sand polish train with this LE. The Africa theme seems cool, and the colors are quite fitting I think, but let's see them together, shall we?

So Classy

Two coats without top coat. So... brown. Not my color. At all. This is absolutely not my thing.

Quel bleu turquoise

Two coats without top coat. I don't know what kind of a pun the name is supposed to be. But it's whatever, I guess. Sorry about the little blob on my pointer finger nail, I accidentally bumped my nail against something and the color wiped off, so I just dotted more back on.

Sunny Side

Two coats without top coat. Why do they keep switching back and forth between English and French? That just kinda annoys me, I guess because I feel it's inconsistent. But well. Definitely not an egg yolk yellow, more of a bright shade.

Rouge, Bien Sûr

Two coats without top coat. Definitely my favorite of the bunch.

L'Orange

Two coats without top coat. Kind of a terracotta shade. Once again, not my color. If it were a brighter orange, I might like it more, but this has a lot of brown undertones I feel, which is probably why I don't like it much.